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Sea Monsters
Chased by Sea Monsters was a BBC television program which used computer-generated imagery to show past life in Earth's seas. It was made by Impossible Pictures, the creators of Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking With Beasts and Walking With Monsters. In this series, British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven is shown traveling to seven past seas in Earth's history and scuba diving there, in order of dangerousness with the most dangerous last. He travels in a white sail/motor boat roughly 24 m (80 ft) long named The Ancient Mariner. His time-travelling device is not mentioned or shown, and the closest thing to it is his time map, showing the timeline of the seven deadliest seas and the creatures that lived at the time. He uses a scuba set with a fullface mask so he can talk underwater to produce the commentary. He performs some dives using a strong shark cage, which is spherical to make it harder for large sea creatures to bite it. Episodes *''450 million years ago - Late Ordovician '' *''360 million years ago - Late Devonian'' *''230 million years ago - Middle Triassic'' *''155 million years ago - Late Jurassic'' *''75 million years ago - Late Cretaceous'' *''36 million years ago - Late Eocene'' *''4 million years ago - Early Pliocene'' Episode One The Seventh Most Dangerous Sea of All Time :Name: The Ordovician :When: 450 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Cameroceras and Megalograptus *''Cameroceras'' *''Megalograptus'' *''Astraspis'' *''Isotelus'' In the Ordovician, the day is only 21 hours long and there is more carbon dioxide than in the 21st century, forcing Nigel to don a medical-looking backpack filled with air tanks with a special oxygen mixture. To attract a Megalograptus, Nigel finds the corpse of a dead armor-plated fish washed up on the beach. Because there is no land life, there are no coastal scavengers to eat what the sea spits out. Before long, Nigel wades into shallow water and the armor-plated fish attracts a large Megalograptus. The creature devours the armor-plated fish, before attacking Nigel's foot, cutting it badly. Later on, Nigel attempts to go after a Cameroceras by removing the eye of a dead trilobite and replacing it with a small video camera. He then uses the inflatable raft to venture out into the deeper waters, where he throws the trilobite video camera combo overboard. However, a Megalograptus is quickly attracted to it, and Nigel immediately gets it off of the trilobite. Later in the afternoon, a Cameroceras grabs and eats the trilobite, and Nigel and the cameraman plunge overboard to film it. On the dive, Nigel wears a chain mail suit, so that any marauding sea scorpion cannot harm him. He finds the Cameroceras in which he watches it devour two Megalograptus. The Cameroceras is more agile in the sea than Nigel, and as it attempts to swim away, Nigel grabs onto its shell. When the Cameroceras starts to dive down into the depths, Nigel swims away to the surface, almost getting attacked by another Megalograptus. When Nigel pilots the boat back to shore, he finds a surprise: there are large numbers of Megalograptus mating in the shallow waters. Nigel manages to make his way safely through the Megalograptus hoardes, but a few clamber onto the inflatable boat and puncture it. The Sixth Most Deadly Sea of All Time :Name: The Triassic :Time: 230 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Nothosaurus and Cymbospondylus *''Peteinosaurus'' *''Coelophysis'' *''Nothosaurus'' *''Tanystropheus'' *''Cymbospondylus'' As Nigel walks along the tropical coastlines of Triassic Switzerland, he explains that the reptiles are taking over the surface of the earth from the skies (e.g. Peteinosaurus), to the land (e.g. Coelophysis). But of course, he is here to see the earliest sea reptiles. From the deck of the Ancient Mariner, Nigel and crew watch as a Nothosaurus comes up for air. When he sees one, Nigel dives into the seas, pursuing the elusive sea reptile. Before long, Nigel finds a pair of Nothosaurus. The Nothosaurus circle him, and Nigel has his prod ready to put off any Nothosaurus that comes too close. One of the Nothosaurus move in closer, so Nigel grabs it around its head to swim with it, and he explains that he would be able to open and close its jaws with tremendous force, but the Nothosaurus' jaw muscles are very weak. Therefore he can ride with it without the Nothosaurus struggling . He lets the Nothosaurus go so that it can breathe air, and Nigel discovers another bizarre sea reptile: a Tanystropheus. Nigel follows the Tanystropheus, and attempts to get a closer look at it by grabbing onto its tail, impeding its movement. However, the Tanystropheus loses its tail, similar to the modern day leopard gecko. Nigel can hold onto the tail only with difficulty, because it is thrashing around (intended as a predator deterrent). Suddenly the tail is snatched up and then eaten by a Cymbospondylus. The Cymbospondylus begins to circle Nigel with glee, and he explains that its slow movement is designed to deceive prey, and it can move very quickly when it is needed to. After he pokes it with the prod several times, the Cymbospondylus swims away, and Nigel returns to the relative safety of the Ancient Mariner. The Fifth Most Dangerous Sea of All Time :Name: The Devonian :Time: 360 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Dunkleosteus *''Bothriolepis'' *''Stethacanthus'' *''Dunkleosteus'' On a preliminary dive in the Devonian seas of Greenland, another crew member of the Mariner (Mike) films a huge female Dunkleosteus, swimming around the shallow reefs near the Ancient Mariner. The crew springs into action, and Nigel goes fishing for Bothriolepis. Nigel places a bet with one of the other crew members that the Dunkleosteus will be able to slice through the Bothriolepis wrapped in the chain mail suit he used in the Ordovician. When the round shark cage is fully assembled, Nigel descends into it. The smell of the dead Bothriolepis begins to attract a young Stethacanthus. Eventually, the monstrous Dunkleosteus is sighted, which scares away the Stethacanthus, and the enraged fish repeatedly bashes the cage with its thick head, and looks as though it's about to rip a hole in the cage... Episode Two: Into the Jaws of Death ...However, the enraged fish only slightly dents the cage. Eventually, Nigel throws the Bothriolepis out of the cage, and the Dunkleosteus slices through the chainmail and the Bothriolepis. Spying a young Dunkleosteus, the huge adult turns cannibal and kills the baby. She then regurgitates the indigestible parts of its meal (the armor plating and the chainmail). As Nigel departs for the surface, he explains that the placoderms as a whole have a grim future ahead of them. In another twenty million years, the entire Class of Placoderms will disappear, much to the other Devonian fish's relief. The Fourth Most Dangerous Sea of All Time :Name: The Eocene :Time: 36 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Basilosaurus *''Arsinoitherium'' *''Dorudon'' *''Basilosaurus'' While walking in the mangrove swamps of Egypt, North Africa, Nigel comes across some mysterious footprints and a mound of fresh dung, by smelling the manure, he proves that the owner is a fruit-eater. Following the tracks, Nigel comes across an Arsinoitherium migrating overland. Nigel takes a calculated risk and offers the huge fruit-eater an apple, but apparently this upsets the Arsinotherium and it charges at Nigel. Only by making a break into the thicker forests does Nigel escape from the mammal. Nigel watches from the forest as the Arsinotherium plunges into the water, and follows it. In the water, Nigel watches as a trio of Dorudon, a species of ancient whale, pass by, and he explains that whales are the reason he came: not for the Dorudon, but a far bigger and meaner whale, Basilosaurus. The Ancient Mariner sails offshore, where the crew try a tactic to attract whales that has been used with mixed success: record a Basilosaurus call and play it back via a huge speaker that is lowered from the boat. After playing it for a while, an enraged Basilosaurus rams into the boat before diving again. Wasting no time, Nigel suits up and dives. However, the whale could attack from any direction, so Nigel stays close to the hull of the Mariner, using the boat like a shield to ward off the Basilosaurus. The Basilosaurus is evidently distressed by the calls, and attacks and disables the speaker (which is explained as a territorial response). As the Ancient Mariner sails off forward through time, Nigel explains that the tropical Eocene is a world on the brink of great climatic change. As the Oligocene dawns, Basilosaurus, Arsinotherium and Dorudon will all vanish, victims of the climatic shifts that ended the Eocene, changing the warm sea into a cold ocean. The Third Most Dangerous Sea of All Time :Name: The Pliocene :Time: 4 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Megalodon *''Odobenocetops'' *''Megalodon'' *''Cetotherium'' After several minutes of heated debate, the crew of the Mariner come to an agreement. Before diving in offshore waters with the adult Megalodon, Nigel will dive in the coastal waters, with the juveniles. Before very long, Nigel finds an Odobenocetops foraging for oysters in the mud, and it is being hunted by an adolescent Megalodon shark. Only by taking cover in the thick underwater foliage does Nigel and the Odobenocetops manage to escape the huge shark. On the next dive (with the adults), Nigel uses the round shark cage that he previously used in the Devonian era against Dunkleosteus. This time, Nigel hopes to fire a small video camera into the dorsal fin of the shark from the relative safety of the cage. Eventually, a Megalodon is spotted, and Nigel quickly gets into the cage, while the crew sets up bait (a bag of chum), which quickly attracts the shark. As it attempted to attack the cage, Nigel tries to fire the camera. However, Nigel panics, and never fires it. Later, he tries again, this time from the surface of the Mariner, as the dorsal fin of the Megalodon was much too high to aim at. The shark is drawn again to the boat via liberal amounts of chum. The shark tries to grab the chum but Nigel is nowhere to be seen. Episode Three: To Hell and Back? Nigel has been knocked off the boat by the shark and when he swims back, he finally managed to land a hit with the shark-camera, and the Megalodon grabs and swallows the chum. In a few days, they find the camera floating in the sea, and when they load it into the on-board television, they watch the Megalodon in question attack a Cetotherium the same size as it was. When the crew of the Ancient Mariner head backwards in time, Nigel says that as the Ice Age begins, the whales that Megalodon preyed on migrated to colder waters, where Megalodon could not follow. Megalodon is doomed to extinction, by hunger. The Second Most Dangerous Sea Ever :Name: The Jurassic :Time: 155 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Liopleurodon *''Leedsichthys'' *''Metriorhynchus'' *''Hybodus'' *''Liopleurodon'' Set around England, which was then largely underwater. This is the second most dangerous sea. Hazards include Liopleurodon, the largest carnivorous animal of all time. Nigel spies a school of migrating Leedsichthys. One weaker one is lagging behind the school, and a native Metriorhynchus and a foreign Hybodus shark launch a joint attack. Using sonar, Nigel discovers that a huge Liopleurodon is heading toward the injured and dying Leedsichthys. The camera spots it circling the Leedsichthys which is already dead, though the Liopleurodon is eventually spooked away by the camera. Nigel equips his and the cameraman's diving suit with a chemical system that will spray a cloud of deterrent at the huge pliosaur should they get too close. The crew use huge waterproof lights when they descend to the corpse of the Leedsichthys, because it is night. A pair of Liopleurodon are feasting on the carcass, and Nigel starts to move closer toward them. When one turns its head towards him, Nigel panics and ejects the chemical, which works on the huge predator. The Most Dangerous Sea Ever :Name: The Cretaceous/"Hell's Aquarium" :Time: 75 Million Years Ago :Hazards: Xiphactinus, Sharks, Giant Mosasaurs *''Hesperornis'' *''Enchodus'' *''Squalicorax'' *''Xiphactinus'' *''Halisaurus'' *''Tyrannosaurus'' *''Pteranodon'' *''Elasmosaurus'' *''Archelon'' *''Tylosaurus'' (Identified as a Giant Mosasaur) Nigel is now entering his final sea mission in "Hell's Aquarium" as he calls it. On the land there's T. Rex, but even the most famous land predator of time all can't compare to what's in the water. After viewing a colony of Hesperornis on the coastline, the birds eat a school of fish called Enchodus. Nigel and another member of the Mariner pause for a second to view a huge underwater bloodbath. As far as Nigel (using a periscope) can figure out, an elderly Hesperornis was killed, and the resulting carnage has attracted many sea animals, such as Squalicorax, and Xiphactinus. However, Nigel noticed another predator around: a mosasaur known as Halisaurus. Nigel had previously read about mosasaurs, and after spotting some of the smaller species, he and the crew headed out to deeper water in search of Tylosaurus. But Nigel explains that this sea is far too dangerous to go diving in; mosasaurs and other huge carnivores like Xiphactinus are far too dangerous. Instead, the crew of the Ancient Mariner have rigged an ROV to dive for them, while the sonar and cameras on the side of the boat would give them early warning if any mosasaurs are nearby. The next morning, Nigel discovers that they have hit a dead Archelon, which was mauled by some other predator before being hit by the boat. Later, after managing to domesticate a Pteranodon, the sonar picks up some creatures right beneath the boat. This was a good time for them to use the ROV, and when they send it down, the crew finds that it's a small pod of Elasmosaurus riding their wake like 21st century dolphins. Some of them knocked the ROV when they were investigating it, and an Archelon is also spotted. Having done the same thing with present-day leatherback turtles, Nigel forgoes his personal safety to track down the Archelon and ride it. He and the cameraman ride off in the small inflatable raft that they had used previously in the Ordovician. Before long, Nigel finds the Archelon when it comes up to the surface for air. He dives, grabbing onto the huge turtle's shell. But not long after, the sonar picked up something nearby: a Xiphactinus was circling Nigel and the Archelon. He quickly makes his escape back up to the raft, but disaster strikes. A family pod of Tylosaurus attack and completely overturn the raft, plunging the crew into the sea. Fortunately for Nigel, the Tylosaurus seem more interested in the boat than the humans, and they quickly escape back to the Mariner. During the credits, night falls and the crew is fast asleep while the sonar onboard picks up a colossal mob of adult Tylosaurus moving in from all sides, preparing to attack the ship.... Animals Of The Movie And Intro And Timeline Land *''Placerias'' *''Coelophysis'' *''Diplodocus'' *''Macrogryphosaurus'' *''Ankylosaurus'' *''Tarbosaurus '' *''Tyrannosaurus Rex '' *''Australopithecus'' *''Woolly Mammoth'' Land/Sea Nigel Marven '' ''Camera Man Nothosaurus Air Pteranodon '' ''Unknown Pterosaur '' ''Sea *''Megalograptus'' *''Cameroceras'' *''Unknown trilobite '' *''Dunkleosteus'' *''Bothriolepis '' *''Stethacanthus '' *''Cymbospondylus'' *''Ophthalmosaurus'' *''Liopleurodon'' *''Hybodus'' *''Cryptoclidus'' *''Tylosaurus'' *''Ambulocetus'' *''Basilosaurus'' *''Megalodon'' *''Leedsichthys '' *''Shark '' *''Dorudon '' *''Arsinoitherium '' *''Metriorhynchus '' *''Xiphactinus '' *''Hesperornis'' *''Unknown Whale '' Notes *In the intro, Velociraptor, Giganotosaurus, and Tarbosaurus are briefly seen chasing Nigel. *A Tyrannosaurus can be seen roaring in chapter 3. *Some of these creatures are newcomers, but others had returned from the Walking With... series, like Basilosaurus, Hybodus, Dorudon, , and Liopleurodon. *All three parts were edited together in 2006 and broadcast on BBC Three. *''Metriorhynchus'' and Hybodus don't seem to matter when they attacked one of the Leedsichthys instead of fighting over it. *The episode set in the Eocene is the only part where the hazard of the sea (Basilosaurus) isn't seen attacking, killing or eating another creature (or part of it, in the case of the episode set in the Triassic, where the Cymbospondylus only ate the Tanystropheus' severed tail). *Even though only one Hybodus is shown attacking the Leedsichthys alongside Metriorhynchus, during the part when it attacked its pectoral fin, another one can be seen in the background. *When the camera switches to the view of the trilobite getting grabbed by the Cameroceras, its beak can be seen snapping at it. *The Nothosaurus seems to have made an unusual call after Nigel let it go. *Nigel is seen feeding a Pteranodon a fish and it didn't attack Nigel. It was also seen again briefly when the Tylosaurus overturned the raft that Nigel and his crew were in. *The juvenile Megalodon seemed to have been scaled to the size of a modern Great White Shark. *The Cryptoclidus appeared to be the same size as the Liopleurodon on the timeline though this may be a Plesiosaurus. *The Dunkleosteus appears to have made a roar before it bangs the cage. *In the timeline, Hybodus had a much more different appearance than in part 6 and Walking With Dinosaurs. Instead, it had the exact same appearance of the sharks seen in episode 2 of Walking With Beasts. *In the intro, a Xiphactinus was caught and killed by a Tylosaurus (the scene where there was a cloud of blood after a few Hesperornis were killed), but this scene was never shown in part 7. Oddly enough, the Xiphactinus that Nigel and the Archelon escaped from was never seen again after Nigel made it back to the raft. There is also a cut part where a Tylosaurus had a pale Xiphactinus in its mouth and another Tylosaurus ate the Xiphactinus' tail. *The adult Megalodon in part 5 had some remoras on it *Two other trilobites were briefly seen in part 1. One of them was dead when Nigel passed by it at the beach (and moved it with his pitch fork). The other one was seen underwater after Nigel was going on his speed boat and did not notice the Megalograptus that was on the beach. *Scientific consultant Mike Everhart suggested showing a scene in which Nigel tries to row the Ancient Mariner onto the beach with the oars to show why the large plesiosaurs couldn't have been amphibious, but it was never shown. *The Squalicorax uses the Megalodon's model. *The animals on the time line change into different spots. *The Trilobite that Nigel had antennas, but when he had it the next day, it lost its antennas. *The animals that moved in the timeline are Cameroceras, Megalograptus, Coelophysis, Cymbospondylus, Dunkleosteus, Megalodon, Diplodocus, Liopleurodon, and Tyrannosaurus. *It is unknown how the dead Leedsichthys was able to stay in the water without sinking or floating up. Most likely, though, there was a build-up of internal gases making it buoyant or even pushing it upwards, out of the water. Paleontological inaccuracies See more info on Walking with...#Paleontological inaccuracies Despite the show being remarkably well researched, it has made a few mistakes. *The theory that Tanystropheus could deattach and regrow its tail is usually discredited nowadays. *There is no evidence for Dunkleosteus committing cannibalism, although because it was the top predator of its time it could've done so like the mosasaur. *''Tylosaurus'' is depicted as a "sixty-foot 20-meter giant", but no mosasaur has been found over 49 feet in length (the book does state 49 feet). *''Liopleurodon'' was overestimated to be 25 metres (82 feet) long and weigh 150 tons. These lengths were based on what was at first believed to be tooth marks from a juvenile Liopleurodon. It was more likely to have grown to 12-16 meters (36-48 feet) long. DVD Sea Monsters has never been released on DVD in the UK, but featured on the American Chased By Dinosaurs DVD and a similar Dutch DVD (which is Region 2 and plays on UK DVD players). See also *''Paleoworld'' *''Dinosaur Planet (TV series)'' *''When Dinosaurs Roamed America'' Sea Monsters is part of a series of BBC documentaries that also include: *''Walking with Dinosaurs'' (1999) *''Walking with Beasts'' (2001), depicting life after the dinosaurs *''Walking with Cavemen'' (2003) *''Walking with Monsters'' (2005), depicting life before the dinosaurs The following are Walking With... series specials: *''The Ballad of Big Al'' (2000) *''Chased By Dinosaurs'' (2002) *''Prehistoric Park'' (2006) The following are similar programs, produced by the BBC: *"Prehistoric America (film)" (2003) *"Monsters We Met" (2004) Category:Walking with Wikia Category:meat eating dinosaurs Category:plant eating dinosaurs Category:egg eating dinosaurs Category:bug eating dinosaurs Category:Sea Monsters Animals Category:Carnivores